This week, NACS sent a letter to the Trump Administration asking it to address the crisis of illicit vapes from China which the c-store and travel center industries are facing.

NACS, along with cosigners Energy Marketers of America; National Association of Tobacco Outlets; NATSO, Representing America's Travel Plazas and Truckstops; and SIGMA: America’s Leading Fuel Marketers highlighted how illicit vape and e-cigarette products have been flooding the country for years and drawing business away from law-abiding retailers.

The letter asks the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) to create change and receive help from the federal enforcement agencies to enforce change.

"For the last four years, illicit vapes have been flooding the U.S. market as thousands of product applications have been in regulatory limbo at CTP. During this time, the agency refused to provide clarity to retailers of what can and cannot be on the market to retailers," said Anna Blom, strategic advisor to the NACS government relations team. "This Administration has an opportunity to take swift action on all outstanding applications, like it did with Juul yesterday, to give long awaited clarity to retailers and to enforce against those selling illicit products."

NACS and its cosigners are asking for the following actions to address the issue:

• Require CTP to decide all premarket applications: CTP should make decisions fast. Many products awaiting decisions are very similar to authorized products and seem easy to authorize. Regardless of which way these are decided, however, process clarity is better than uncertainty. Even denials will at least start the process of legal challenges and getting to final decisions.
• Require CTP to provide clarity: CTP must be told to reveal exactly which products (not just manufacturers) have been denied, exactly which products remain in legal limbo and exactly which products submitted timely applications. The majority of stores in the U.S. are small businesses that do not have in-house legal teams to read through agency jargon. They need clear and concise information from CTP.
• Supercharge the multi-agency task force: Once product clarity has been provided, the federal multi-agency task force led by FDA and Department of Justice, which was established in June 2024 to combat illicit vapes, should be directed to bring the strongest civil and criminal enforcement actions against the worst offenders to deter ongoing noncompliance. Illicit product, wherever it is found, should be seized. FDA has direct authority to regulate the distribution chain, and it should fully utilize this power.
• Require more from Customs and Border Protection (CBP): CBP should strengthen its efforts to prevent the importation of illicit Chinese vapes by increasing targeted inspections throughout the supply chain, expanding the use of risk-based analytics tools and pursuing civil and criminal penalties in cases of fraudulent import misdeclarations.